Seattle, WA
Tasted Sunday, April 15, 2007 by Eric with 1,217 views
Roy Hersh put together an extensive vertical of Hanzell wines hosted at UNION Restaurant in Seattle. The restaurant did a great job with food and glassware. Twelve attended in total including Michael Terrien, the current winemaker and GM at Hanzell.
At this point we took a break while the table was re-set for dinner. We had saved a couple of flights of younger wines to have with food, a great decision.
Beef Tartare with capers, cornichons, rye crackers
Cauliflower soup with seared sea scallop, brown butter apples
Halibut with white bean and haricot vert salad
Roasted squab with celery root purée, red chard, spring onions
Miti Caña with candied carrot, Marcona almonds
Rosemary crème caramel with orange parsnip purée
Whew, what a marathon. I really enjoyed seeing such a distinct style from such a traditional producer.
1980 Hanzell Chardonnay
USA, California, Sonoma County, Sonoma Valley
Poached pear, fairly charming, lively with a hint of brioche. Faded fruit but rather lively acidity, brisk with some green apple. Nice glycerin as it warms in the glass. Mostly about the acid at this point but still a wine with surprising life in it at 27 years.
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1981 Hanzell Chardonnay
USA, California, Sonoma County, Sonoma Valley
Marzipan. Rather full in the mouth with sweet pears, a hint of butterscotch. This falls off a little on the finish with a faint bitter pith note, but this was clearly the wine of the flight. Amazing fruit at 26 years!
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1984 Hanzell Chardonnay Flawed
USA, California, Sonoma County, Sonoma Valley
Corked
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1987 Hanzell Chardonnay
USA, California, Sonoma County, Sonoma Valley
Doughy, some spirit, more mature smelling than either the 1980 or 1981. A bit bitter on the palate and definitely the most mature of the flight. Falls away on the finish. Not dead by any stretch but definitely seems to be heading down.
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